Tuesday, 26 August 2008

I'll confess to the world right now that I'm a fan of the plastic, brightly-coloured, Danish bricks. Lego has always been a mainstay in my life, especially when I was a kid. My parents should have purchased stock rather than the number of sets that my brother and I obtained over the years. Whether it was town sets, space sets, castle sets, pirate sets, or whatever set we could get our hands on, my brother and I had the makings of a small country for our Lego people. However, being Canadian, the one type of set that I always wanted to see was a hockey set that was endorsed by the NHL. I watched a lot of hockey as a kid, and it was the one thing that separated me from Lego in my childhood.

In my search of the Information Superhighway, I have seen a ton of stadiums and arenas built out of Lego, but I have yet to find an excellent representation of a hockey arena. There have been some absolutely amazing creations - case in point is the Allianz Arena found in Legoland, California. This amazing creation required 1.3 million Lego bricks to build, and contains an astonishing 30,000 mini-figures. Check out the slideshow below of the whole Allianz Arena.

At night, the Lego stadium lights in three colours: red, white, and blue. The real stadium in Munich also does this. It is lit red when the FC München takes the field, blue when TSV 1860 FC takes the field, and white for all other occasions. In creating the LED setup for the Lego stadium, Lego developed a white, translucent brick so that the LED colours could be seen through the bricks.

This is a pretty incredible stadium for soccer, I must say. Honestly, it is the crown jewel of all stadiums and arenas that I've seen, and is certainly a remarkable achievement.

Now, this blog isn't becoming Toy Blog In Canada or Model Blog or Soccer Blog. I'm just blown away by these stadiums that were created out of Lego, and the extreme details that make them so incredible. That's what I want to see out of a Lego hockey arena - attention to detail.

But what of hockey, I ask? Why are there no phenomenally-detailed models of Madison Square Garden or the Great Western Forum or Joe Louis Arena? Maple Leaf Gardens or the Montreal Forum would be incredible to see as well!

Well, Lego and the NHL had an agreement of sorts, and they did produce some very rudimentary hockey sets, but these didn't produce the same eye-popping design that the above designs did. Nor did they do anything to promote NHL stars through the Lego sets. This was as close to acceptable that Lego got with their hockey sets, and the rest are quite disappointing.

However, Lego did create the Stanley Cup out of Lego for a sports equipment show that took place in Las Vegas in 2003. According to the Hockey Hall of Fame website, "[i]n 2003, toy manufacturer Lego created a replica Stanley Cup created out of 6,000 Lego blocks and displayed it at a sports equipment show in Las Vegas to promote the launch of their new NHL line of merchandise. There were only two such Lego Stanley Cups made, one for display, and one as a gift to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. The cup on display, like the Stanley Cup collar years earlier, was stolen and a national search went out to hunt down the Lego Cup. An Arizona man saw an article on the missing cup in the paper, and alerted authorities that he had the cup and had bought it for fifty dollars U.S. while on business in Las Vegas. The Lego Stanley Cup was returned to the company, and the good samaritan was rewarded with Phoenix Coyotes tickets and products from Lego's NHL line of merchandise."

A builder named "Zonker" also came up with some hockey-related designs. He designed a diorama for his wife's team in the Northern California Women's Hockey League (NCWHL). An interesting design, but not quite an arena. However, Zonker came up with a great idea in designing the same zamboni that the San Jose Sharks used in the NHL in 1995. The result? This cool creation. Notice the shark fin? Great addition!

So that's a little more about me. I like Lego. But I really want to see an exquisite arena built. The hallowed halls of the Montreal Forum demand it! In all seriousness, though, that Allianz Arena is a work of art, and congratulations to everyone on their designs featured here!

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